1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and means for removal of fleas and flea eggs from household pets without the use of insect killing chemicals on the pets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The common flea, pulex irritans, of the order Siphonaptera, is a tiny wingless insect seldom seen by humans but its presence is often felt in a most discomforting manner by humans and animals, particularly household pets, throughout most parts of the world. This parasitic creature lives on or in close proximity to many animals, particularly household pets, and derives its nourishment from animal blood while using the animal's coat as a host for its eggs. The wingless flea has limbs adapted for great leaping ability that it uses to leap from 6 to 12 inches onto a host animal from any convenient waiting station such as bedding, carpet, a crack in a wooden floor, grass, weeds, and the like. Using a suctorial proboscis on its head, also armed with piercing mandibles, the flea inflicts an irritating and often painful bite to obtain the blood upon which it depends for nourishment. Disease bacteria are often carried by the flea and transmitted in the course of the bite.
Pet owners go to great lengths to eradicate or lessen the numbers of fleas by using spray and powder insecticides in their pets' surroundings indoors and out of doors. Combs, brushes, diet supplements and insecticidal shampoos are also used in an often futile attempt to ward off or remove the fleas that regularly invade the pets' coats. Insecticidal dips, powders, sprays and flea collars are used on the pet in further attempts to eradicate the pesky flea; yet the flea problem is a constant and reoccurring irritant to pet and owner alike. Where fleas are numerous they often inflict their irritating bits on humans as well as on their pets.
No matter how valiantly the owner battles the flea the war is seldom won and relief for pet and owner is usually short-lived as the flea population tends to return again and again. Even the pet owner who succeeds in eradicating the flea from his pet and premises faces reinfestation from infested pets on adjoining premises or wild birds and animals that can also carry the flea.
The insecticides that have proven effective contain rather harsh chemicals that are frequently irritating to man and animal alike. To even approach effective insecticidal control of fleas the pet owner must subject himself and his pet to regular bathing, combing and drying of the pet, a process that seems to increase geometrically in difficulty as the size of the pet increases and is always quite time consuming. Bathing with an insecticidal shampoo only kills the live fleas that are contacted in the bathing process and usually leaves eggs in the animal's coat to hatch very soon after the bath is completed. To protect a bathed pet from reinfestation, the pet must be dipped in a harsh chemical solution, powdered, sprayed or equipped with an insecticide impregnated flea collar. The results are usually less than satisfactory as the insecticidal protection from fleas soon breaks down and dissipates. The chemicals in the insecticides can easily burn and irritate the skin, eyes, mucous membranes and genital areas of the pet as well as subjecting the owner to similar irritation and discomfort in the process of applying the insecticide to the pet. General environmental pollution from the insecticides is an obvious and undesirable collateral result.
Flea combs consisting of closely spaced plastic or metal tines have long been used as means for mechanical removal of fleas, particularly by pet owners who do not wish to subject themselves, the pet or their premises to the harsh chemicals of the insecticides. However, combing, while it may remove some of the fleas and flea eggs, does little more to most live fleas than move them about. Flea removal vacuum systems have also been tried, particularly the system disclosed by the invention of Aasen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,095, which teaches the use of a rather coarse brush of flexible, hollow rubber or plastic tubes to agitate the pet's coat and draw the disturbed fleas and eggs by vacuum through a plenum chamber to a trapping filter. Application of sufficient vacuum to remove a meaningful percentage of the flea population hiding in and clinging to the coat of a particular pet has proven difficult in practice because the vacuum effect of a household vacuum cleaner alone does not effectively gather in a significant percentage of the live fleas on a pet.